Chemical Controversies
Pesticides are substances that prevent, destroy, repel, or reduce the severity of pests. Pests are living things that occur where they are not wanted or that cause damage to humans, crops, or animals. Pests can be insects, rodents, unwanted plants, bacteria, viruses, or different types of fungus. Pesticides can vary in how toxic they are to humans and the environment. Some are persistent in the environment, animals, and birds, lasting for years; others break down soon after they are released. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) grants licenses, or registrations, to pesticides that it has found do not pose unreasonable risks to human health and the environment; it has registered at least 865 pesticides, which are used in thousands of pesticide products.
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Fall armyworm threatens Nigerian crops; genetic engineering offers only long-term solution
Nigeria remains Africa’s largest [corn] producer, growing nearly 8 million tons annually. It is closely followed by South Africa, Tanzania, ...
New York farmer’s sustainability comparison—7 advantages of conventional farming over organic
[Editor’s Note: Tim Durham’s family runs Deer Run Farm on Long Island, NY. He holds a degree in plant medicine ...
Video: Successful Kenya GMO corn field trials show 40% yield increase compared to conventional corn
KTN News Kenya posted a news segment broadcasted from the site of a current GM maize field trial. Supporters of ...
Podcast: How agriculture spurred the domestication of wild cats
Geneticist Eva-Maria Geigl: Early grain farms attracted rodents—and wild cats that were social enough to hunt them near human settlements ...
Genetically engineered crops could protect themselves by sterilizing pests
Plants are among many eukaryotes that can 'turn off' one or more of their genes by using a process called ...
How biotechnology is making farming more sustainable
[Editor's note: Randy Krotz is the CEO of US Farmers and Ranchers.] There are some things that GMOs allow us ...
What’s a ‘natural’ food? Lawsuits mount as FDA lags on creating label standard
More than a year after the Food and Drug Administration signaled that it would soon nail down exactly what the ...
Monsanto shill alert: Does industry funded GMO research bias findings?
Can consumers trust "independent" studies funded by corporations that have found genetically modified foods safe? Anti-GMO activists say 'no.' But ...
The story behind Monsanto’s dicamba weedkiller fiasco
The problem...is that dicamba has drifted from the fields where it was sprayed, damaging millions of acres of unprotected soybeans ...
Some farmers, activist critics concerned agri-business mergers could increase costs, reduce biodiversity
Three mega-mergers of agricultural chemical and seed companies are reshaping global food production and prompting fears of higher costs for ...
Judge tosses suit claiming Quaker Oats misled customers because its 100% natural cereals contain glyphosate
A federal judge has tossed a high-profile lawsuit accusing Quaker Oats of misleading shoppers with 100% natural claims on products ...
Uganda: From scorching drought to ravaging worms, poor pay the price for missing out on a biotech solution
The food and famine crisis is finally bringing to a head the clash between anti-GMO activists, mostly European based, and ...
Next generation Golden Rice could be driven by CRISPR gene editing
Rice breeders today develop improved varieties from genetic breeding stock that has been advanced through thousands of generations and over ...
Vulnerable system? What if world’s breadbaskets experience crop failure at same time?
Less than 25 percent of Earth’s cropland produces nearly 75% of the staple crops that feed us. Are globalization and ...
Syngenta CEO overseeing ChemChina merger believes introducing GMOs to Europe near hopeless
[Erik Fyrwald, Syngenta’s current CEO], joined Syngenta in 2016, after many years in senior management with US-based chemical companies, most ...
Viewpoint: Current GMO crops help farmers more than poor global consumers
A Professor of Geography at Macalester College in Saint Paul, Minnesota, Dr. William G. Moseley, has written a short, compelling ...
Twist on truth: Knowledge, such as on GMOs, can lead to a rejection of the scientific consensus
[A] new study out [August 22nd] joins a number of earlier ones in indicating that scientific knowledge makes it easier ...
Neonics and bees under the microscope: Foraging benefits of neonic-treated crops outweigh negative effects
Since 2013 the European Commission has restricted the use of three neonicotinoid insecticides as seed dressings on bee-attractive crops. Such ...
Catholic church aligns with anti-science activists in Nigeria to try to block biotech approvals
Catholic doctors in Nigeria are calling on the national government to regulate the use of Genetically Modified Organisms, or GMOs ...
Turning human ‘biosolids’ into fertilizer raises health concerns
New research suggests [that using sewage as fertilizer, also known as 'biosolids'] could be a problem, as contaminants are now ...
Challenging idea organic fruits, vegetables more nutritious, better for the environment
[Editor’s Note: Emma Beckett is a molecular nutritionist at the University of Newcastle’s School of Medicine and Public Health] Many ...
Podcast: Global ag biotech snapshot: Is GMO adoption on the decline?
UK researcher Graham Brooke on the rising economic and regulatory costs of crop biortechnology--Is it worth it? ...
29 states pass ‘seed-preemption laws’ that block cities and counties from banning GMOs
With little notice, more than two dozen state legislatures have passed “seed-preemption laws” designed to block counties and cities from ...
What’s behind EU’s skepticism of Bayer-Monsanto merger?
[Bayer’s acquisition of Monsanto] may not go through. Multiple media outlets have reported that European Union regulators are skeptical of ...
Judge ponders removal of lawyers behind glyphosate class action suit for possible illegal media release of classified documents
A federal judge [heard] arguments [on August 24] at a federal court in San Francisco over whether the lead attorneys ...
How technology can reduce pesticide drift
Though neither the EPA nor various state agencies could provide reliable statistics on the total number of [pesticide] drift incidents, ...
Pesticide used on organic farms may cause breathing problems in farmworkers’ children
Elemental sulfur, the most heavily-used pesticide in California, may harm the respiratory health of children living near farms that use ...
